FCC approves Insight sale to Time Warner

Cable TV giant will gain another 750,000 customers

The Federal Communications Commission has given final approval for Time Warner Cable to go ahead with its $3 billion purchase of Insight Communications, bringing the deal another step closer to completion.

When the sale closes later this year, Time Warner will gain Insight's 750,000 customers in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and will become Kentucky's largest cable provider.

In its ruling, the FCC said, "The combined company's broader service footprint, increased operating efficiencies, and greater scale and scope create a potentially stronger competitor" for phone business, which "outweighs the potential harm from eliminating Insight as a competitor in the limited area in which both companies compete."

The Insight acquisition, announced in August, is Time Warner Cable's second foray into expanding its territory in the Tri-State in the past year. The company recently closed a deal in which it obtained the Kentucky and Tennessee operations of Sikeston, Mo.-based NewWave Communications. NewWave sold its cable systems in those two states after purchasing Avenue Broadband, which expanded NewWave's Illinois and Indiana holdings.